Leif Moritz

Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behaviour · Neurobiology of Magnetoreception

The Western Ghats of India are one of the world's major biodiversity hotspots. Approximately 60% of the millipede species (>270) known from India were described from this region during the colonial period. Previously, only two orders and a total of six species of the subterclass Colobognatha were known from India: order Polyzoniida with three speci...

African mole-rats display highly derived hearing that is characterized by low sensitivity and a narrow auditory range restricted to low frequencies < 10 kHz. Recently, it has been suggested that two species of these rodents do not exhibit distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE), which was interpreted as evidence for a lack of cochlear ampl...

The millipede family Siphonorhinidae (order Siphonophorida) shows a scattered distribution in South Africa, Madagascar, India, Southeast Asia, and North America. So far, the family is unknown from South America, while species of Siphonophoridae, the second family of the order, are relatively abundant on the continent. However, not a single Siphonop...

Los milpiés (Diplopoda) son detritívoros que viven generalmente ocultos dentro del suelo y la hojarasca, y en la mayoría de las especies poco se conoce sobre su biología. Esto es especialmente cierto en el caso de los enigmáticos Colobognatha, como Hirudicryptus canariensis, un milpiés sifonócriptido endémico de los bosques de laurisilva de la Maca...

The type species of the monotypic Polyzoniida genus Dawydoffia Attems, 1953, D. kalonota Attems, 1953 from Vietnam, is redescribed based on type material. A second species of the genus, D. siphonocryptida n. sp., is described from Laos based on scanning electron microscopy, micro-computed tomography and molecular barcoding. The species of Dawydoffi...

Arthropods constitute a highly diverse group of animals dominated by insects, arachnids, crustaceans and myriapods, the latter consisting of two important classes: Chilopoda and Diplopoda. Diplopods are remarkable for their diversity and disparity and have a long and rich fossil record going back to the Silurian. Here, X-ray microtomography (mCT) r...

Considering the large area of the Indian subcontinent, its known millipede diversity is sparse with only ca. 270 described species in 90 genera, 25 families and 11 orders. So far, not a single polyzoniidan millipede has been described from India. The order Polyzoniida Cook, 1895 is one of the most species-poor millipede groups with less than 80 des...

Millipedes are slow-moving soil organisms, which do not easily disperse to new habitats. However, species can be transported by humans across large distances and be found in anthropogenic habitats like botanical gardens and glasshouses. Thus, several millipede species have been introduced from around the world to Europe. Here we describe three new...

We report fluid feeding with a sucking pump in the arthropod class Diplopoda, using a combination of synchrotron tomography, histology, electron microscopy, and three-dimensional reconstructions. Within the head of nine species of the enigmatic Colobognatha, we found a pumping chamber, which acts as positive displacement pump and is notably similar...

Laboulbeniales are a highly specialized group of fungi living only on arthropods. They have high host specificity and spend their entire life-cycle on an arthropod host. Taxonomic characters of Laboulbeniales are based on the architecture of the cells of the parenchymal thallus, i.e. the visible part of the fungus outside the host. The extent of th...

The production of sticky threads from spinnerets is known from various myriapod groups including some representatives of the millipedes (Diplopoda). In Diplopoda the thread-producing glands are mostly seta-like and positioned terminally on the telson, and the secretion product is typically used to build molting chambers or egg sacs. So far, no such...

The production of sticky threads from ‘spinnerets’ is known from various myriapod groups including some representatives of the millipedes (Diplopoda). In Diplopoda the thread-producing glands are mostly setae-like and positioned terminally on the telson, and the secretion product is typically used to build molting chambers or egg sacs. So far, no s...

Two new species of giant pill-millipedes, Zephronia viridisoma Rosenmejer & Wesener sp. nov. and Sphaerobelum aesculus Rosenmejer & Wesener sp. nov., are described based on museum samples from southern Thailand. Zephronia viridisoma sp. nov. comes from Khao Lak, while the type locality of S. aesculus sp. nov. is on Phuket Island. Both species are d...

A new family, Electrocambalidae fam. nov. of the suborder Cambalidea is described from Cretaceous Burmese amber based on two new genera, Electrocambala gen. nov. and Kachincambala gen. nov. with four new species, Electrocambala ornata gen. et sp. nov., E. cretacea gen. et sp. nov., Kachincambala muelleri gen. et sp. nov. and K. distorta gen. et sp....

With three genera and 35 previously known species from India, SE Asia, Central and South America, Glomeridesmida are one of the least diverse Diplopoda groups. Here we describe Glomeridesmus siamensis sp. nov. , the first species of the order Glomeridesmida from Thailand. The geographically nearest confamiliar species have been described from south...

Leg chordotonal organs in insects show different adaptations to detect body movements, substrate vibrations, or airborne sound. In the proximal tibia of stick insects occur two chordotonal organs: the subgenual organ, a highly sensitive vibration receptor organ, and the distal organ, of which the function is yet unknown. The distal organ consists o...

Although most millipedes (Diplopoda) show a biting–chewing feeding mode, representatives of the so‐called Colobognatha (Platydesmida, Polyzoniida, Siphonocryptida, Siphonophorida), with their more or less reduced mouthparts, are assumed to have evolved a suctorial feeding mode, which enables them to exploit food sources like algal film and fungi hy...

In October 2019, an excursion of the Working Group of German-speaking Myriapodologists to the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Schorfheide-Chorin took place with the aim to record its myriapod fauna and thus to increase the knowledge on distribution, habitat requirements and current stage of population development of the myriapod species in this selected a...

The Tömösváry organ is a sensory structure of the head in myriapods and some other terrestrial arthropods. Due to its variable shape, size, and position in millipedes (Diplopoda) the Tömösváry organ is commonly used as diagnostic character in taxonomic descriptions and often included in phylogenetic analyses. For the Polydesmida, the largest millip...

INTRODUCTION The Tömösváry organ (TO) is a sensory structure on the head of millipedes (Diplopoda) and other terrestrial Mandibulata, although its homology and function is uncertain. The TO is often used as character (absence/presence, position, shape) in taxonomic descriptions and phylogenetic analyses. For the Polydesmida, the most diverse millip...

Millipedes have been inhabiting the earth for more than 400 my and show a great diversity regarding their morphology and ecology. For a better understanding of the timing and pattern of millipede evolution, Burmese amber offers a unique window into the Cretaceous period, ca. 99 Ma. Here, we describe the first known fossil of the colobognathan order...

The Quirrenbach, a forest site at the eastern edge of the Siebengebirge nature region in the southern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, is covered by an alluvial forest with slopes upwards towards a street. From 2011 to 2017 the site was subject to yearly spring excursions by the arthropod class taught at the Museum Koenig, Bonn, where myria...

The entire Mesozoic Era is rather poor in millipede (class Diplopoda) fossils, with less than a dozen species being taxonomically described. Here, we describe the first fossil millipede of the order Callipodida, Burmanopetalum inexpectatum gen. nov. et sp. nov., found in early Cenomanian amber of Burma, 98.79±0.62 Mya. The species possesses a numbe...

An inventory of the Myriapoda (Diplopoda, Chilopoda, Symphyla) from Cretaceous Burmese amber, Myanmar, is presented, including the oldest and/or first fossil record for numerous orders. For millipedes (Diplopoda) 527 records, including 460 new specimens determined by us, belonging to 13 of 16 recent orders are listed: Polyxenida, Glomeri­desmida, G...

The presence of a swinging tentorium is a key apomorphy of Myriapoda, but this character has been studied in detail in only few species. Here the tentorium, i.e., the peristomatic skeleton of the preoral chamber, is comparatively studied in three species of the millipede order Sphaerotheriida Brandt, 1833. Since dissections of the fragile tentorial...

The species-rich giant pill-millipedes (Sphaerotheriida) often represent a microendemic component of Madagascar's mega-invertebrate fauna. Of the chirping genus Sphaeromimus de Saussure & Zehntner, 1902, ten species have been described. Here, we describe two new species of Sphaeromimus integratively, combining light microscopy, scanning electron mi...

Symphyla are one of the least known of the four classes of the Myriapoda. While Symphyla are dated to have split from the other myriapods at about 430–593 Ma, there are no fossil specimens known aside from seven specimens of the family Scutigerellidae preserved in Dominican and Baltic amber, with a maximum age of ca. 54 Ma. Here we describe the fir...

The so called ‘swinging tentorium’, the inner skeleton of the millipede head is one of the few autapomorphies supporting the monophyly of the Myriapoda. Nevertheless studies of its structure in the Diplopoda are scarce. The Arthrosphaeridae belong to the Sphaerotheriida and are endemic to India and Madagascar. The tentorium of the Sphaerotheriida i...

The fossil record of millipedes from the Mesozoic (252-66 MYA) is scarce. This is especially true for the Juliformia, where only few fossils of the extant order Spirobolida from the Cretaceous and of the extinct order Xyloiuloidea from the Jurassic and Triassic are known. The earliest fossils attributable to the order Spirostreptida are known from...

Background Solar-powered sea slugs are famed for their ability to survive starvation due to incorporated algal chloroplasts. It is well established that algal-derived carbon can be traced in numerous slug-derived compounds, showing that slugs utilize the photosynthates produced by incorporated plastids. Recently, a new hypothesis suggests that the...

Introduction: The monophyly of Myriapoda is morphologically supported mainly by a distinct cuticular formation of the head called the tentorium and its involvement in movements of the mandibles. The traditional assumption that the myriapod tentorium primarily is a mobile formation yet remained contentious and is currently challenged by new insights...